Several Island Democrats have formed a steering committee to join a national effort to draft U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., to run for the Democratic nomination for president in 2008.

Obama, who was born in Honolulu and graduated from Punahou School, has been considering a presidential campaign and appeared last weekend in New Hampshire, a state with an important early primary.

Democrats on the Hawai'i steering committee have scheduled a news conference for Thursday morning at the state Capitol to formally announce their plans.

Chuck Freedman, a retired vice president of corporate relations for Hawaiian Electric Co. and former communications director for former Gov. John Waihee, said the committee has contacted Obama's aides and has received a positive response.

"The whole focus of this is to get people to express support for him as a candidate," Freedman said. "He would be the first Hawai'i-born president."

A spokesman for Obama's Senate office in Washington, D.C., could not be reached today.

"The effort here is to say this guy is really a top-notch candidate," Freedman said. "Not just because he was born in Hawai'i, but because he offers something very special to the country and the world."